The Scar-Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn. Book review

The year is 1593. This is a time of intrigue and suspicion where nobody really knows who can be trusted, and if that were not enough, plague ravishes the city of London. In all of this mayhem, Will’s closest friend, Kit Marlowe, is murdered and Will embarks on a course of bloody revenge on the killers. In doing so he unearths Unseelie enemies amongst Elizabeth’s courtiers far more deadly than any he has encountered before.

Second in the Swords of Albion adventure series, The Scar-Crow Men is another swashbuckling adventure full of sword fights and chases through dark streets and magick-infested halls. There is plenty of action here, and bags of verisimilitude. As ever, Mark Chadbourn’s fantasy is of a very dark kind, where blood and guts and magicks abound in buckets.

One has to wonder how ‘England’s greatest spy’ can work incognito when he is so well recognised, but it’s a small point, and of course not at all relevant when the enemy he is trained to fight is neither English nor human. A curious ending, which I cannot give away of course, but set fair for the third volume. A must for all Chadbourn’s fans.

Volume one of this series, The Sword of Albion, (published as The Silver Skull in US) is now available in mass market format from Bantam at ‘7.99.

The year is 1593. This is a time of intrigue and suspicion where nobody really knows who can be trusted, and if that were not enough, plague ravishes the city of London. In all of this mayhem, Will’s closest friend, Kit Marlowe, is murdered and Will embarks on a course of bloody revenge on the killers. In doing so he unearths Unseelie enemies amongst Elizabeth’s courtiers far more deadly than any he has encountered before.

Second in the Swords of Albion adventure series, The Scar-Crow Men is another swashbuckling adventure full of sword fights and chases through dark streets and magick-infested halls. There is plenty of action here, and bags of verisimilitude. As ever, Mark Chadbourn’s fantasy is of a very dark kind, where blood and guts and magicks abound in buckets.

One has to wonder how ‘England’s greatest spy’ can work incognito when he is so well recognised, but it’s a small point, and of course not at all relevant when the enemy he is trained to fight is neither English nor human. A curious ending, which I cannot give away of course, but set fair for the third volume. A must for all Chadbourn’s fans.

Volume one of this series, The Sword of Albion, (published as The Silver Skull in US) is now available in mass market format from Bantam at ‘7.99.